


It's More Fun That Way

by notreadybutwilling



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Gen, Kid Fic, Team Lads, Team Nice Dynamite, platonic!mavin, ugh they're best friends its so cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-14
Updated: 2013-09-14
Packaged: 2017-12-26 14:19:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/966933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notreadybutwilling/pseuds/notreadybutwilling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Michael can’t wait for baseball camp, and for good reason; he loves playing, and isn’t too bad at it, either. The only problem he has with what should be the best week of the summer is the British idiot who seems to have no idea what baseball is, much less an idea how to play.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's More Fun That Way

**Author's Note:**

> Written for weiweipon on tumblr and for my love of kidfic (especially while sick and medicated). Thanks to my beta, greycacophony (Riss ilu)

July brought about a month of hot sun, of family barbeques and running through the neighbors’ sprinklers, even if Mom always complained about the state of his wet clothes afterward.

It also meant the start of baseball camp: an entire week of doing the one thing that made Michael happier than anything. He made sure his mom got all the camp brochures on the stand to make sure that he found the best one, and then begged and pleaded and took on more chores than he’d ever done, just to make sure that he could go.

He’d even  _cleaned his room._

Michael Jones could hardly stand the short ride to the camp; even though he’d gotten up just as early as he did during the school year, he was nothing short of giddy and excitable. The second his mom parked, he raced out of the car with his lunch while she called after him about how it wasn’t safe for him to unbuckle and open the door when the car was still moving; to be fair, she had a point, but the check in table was right there and Michael couldn’t quite contain himself.

Of course, his mom took for _ever_  to catch up with him and she had to talk with the ladies at the sign in but with a final hug and an “I love you,” she sent him ahead.

Two of the volunteers were out in the field, handing out equipment and trying to keep all the boys in a line. Their nametags were bright red and blue with “Geoff” and “Jack” written on them really neatly, like girl-handwriting neatly. They seemed really nice, plus they had cool tattoos all over their arms. Michael had always wanted tattoos, but his mom would only let him get the temporary tattoos that rubbed off right away, and she got really red in the face when he drew on his arms with those Sharpie markers.

By the time everyone had gotten there, Geoff and Jack were already leading the group to the bleachers, sitting them down and getting everybody organized.

“Alright, calm down,” Geoff called out. “So my name is Geoff, and this is Jack.” Jack waved. “We’re gonna be your coaches this week. Who here has played baseball before?”

All the boys raised their hands, a few already giggling. “So I guess we don’t need to read the rulebook, right?” and was met with a chorus of “No!”

They split into two groups, half the boys going with Jack for batting practice, the other half following Geoff with their mitts to work on their pitches.

And Michael? Michael was in seventh heaven.

They played through the morning, switching stations halfway through and sweating like pig and having the absolute time of their lives. Michael was a pretty good player himself, but he wasn’t the only one. He instantly hit it off with a boy named Ray, who somehow managed to hit three home runs in a row, even though he had trouble paying attention when he wasn’t playing and often chose to pick some of the tiny red flowers beside the field instead of listening to directions. There were about six different instances when Ray hissed under his breath, “What’s going on?” But Michael didn’t mind. The other boy was really funny and one of the best players on their team, with the exception of Caleb, whose pitches were faster than anyone else’s.

Michael was almost sure that they would kick butt in the afternoon games if it wasn’t for one thing.

There was a tall British boy on his team. His name was Gavin and he was  _awful_  at baseball. He kept holding the bat wrong and even when Jack helped him fix his grip, he never hit the ball further than a foot away. He always managed to catch the ball, and then it always managed to bounce out of his glove before he could hold on to it. The worst part was that he seemed to find everything about it hilarious and he would laugh so hard that his voice would get really high pitched and whiny.

Michael most definitely  _did not like_  Gavin.

So whenever Gavin messed up, Michael fumed internally and hoped that he’d miraculously get better by that afternoon.

Before he knew it, it was lunch time, and Geoff and Jack led the boys into the building at the center of the camp. The air-conditioning felt like a blessing on everyone’s sweaty skin, and they hurried to the long tables, eager to get seats by their friends. Even though Michael grabbed a seat beside Ray, he ended up with Gavin on his other side. Great.

As they all got out their food, he and Ray exchanged their least favorite parts. Michael wasn’t a fan of applesauce and Ray couldn’t stand carrots; he said his mom kept trying to convince him to eat them because they were good for him, but he thought they tasted gross. Michael thought he was crazy, because carrots are obviously pretty great. And since Michael had an extra cookie, he gave it to Ray.

“Ray, do you have a best friend?” he asked.

The other boy spoke around the bite of sandwich in his mouth when he said, “I guess. I mean, I hang out with my friend Joel when we’re at school, but right now he’s on vacation.”

“Oh,” Michael replied, looking back at his food.

“You can be my best friend, too, if you want.”

Michael’s head snapped up. “Really? I thought you could only have one best friend.”

Ray smiled. “Well, I guess I’m special, because now I have two.” Michael grinned in response; Lindsay, the girl who lived on his street, had told him that she couldn’t be his best friend because she already had a best friend named Barbara. She’d told him that everybody gets one best friend, c’mon Michael, everybody knows that. Well, now he was going to totally prove her wrong!

Then Gavin chimed in, and Michael was rolling his eyes before the Brit even finished speaking. “You can totally have more than one best friend.” He pointed down the table at a boy with dark messy hair. “That’s Dan, he’s one of my best friends. He’s pretty top.”

Michael furrowed his brow. “What does that even mean?”

Gavin just shrugged, saying, “Top, like cool or something.”

“You’re weird.”

“But that’s more fun,” Gavin told him with a grin.

It wasn’t long until the boys were all headed back outside for the game, and the excitement was palpable. Michael’s team was up to bat first, and their first few batters were good – Ray even managed to score a run.

Of course, it all fell apart when Gavin went up to bat. Not only did he get tagged out by the catcher, but they got Caleb out too, and as Michael trudged into the outfield with his team, he glared at the other boy, who had the audacity to be grinning like an idiot.

For most of his time in the outfield, Gavin sat in the grass and fussed with his mitt as nothing came his way, and whenever he went up to bat, he failed spectacularly, sometimes managing to spin around without hitting the ball or dropping the bat when the pitch was too fast for him to hit.

Gavin was the weakest link, and in the end, he lost them the game, causing Michael to yell at him about how it wasn’t that hard to hit a ball with a bat.

When his mom picked him up, of course Michael told her about Ray and Caleb and Jack and Geoff, but he couldn’t keep from going about Gavin and how bad he was and how he shouldn’t even be at a baseball camp if he couldn’t play baseball. Like that didn’t make any sense, right?

His mom just smiled and nodded.

The rest of the week progressed in much the same way. They would focus on specific skill sets in the morning to get better, break for lunch, and play a game in the afternoon. These were leading up to the last day of camp; then their parents would be able to come and watch their game and see just how much better everyone had gotten.

Of course, no matter what Michael did, he couldn’t escape Gavin. Even though Geoff announced new teams every day, Michael was always stuck with Gavin. No matter where he sat for lunch, he always ended up next to or across from Gavin. And no matter how much he tried to ignore the other boy, Michael was always getting upset every time he’d have to watch Gavin fail miserably, because that meant the rest of the team failed miserably too.

Gavin didn’t seem to have a problem with it. He and his friend Dan were always joking around, oblivious to the  _very serious problem_  of Gavin’s lack of skill, and it was getting on Michael’s last nerve.

Of course, he was an idiot in all other aspects of life, so there was always something to laugh at Gavin for. Like the time that Ray’s water bottle leaked in his lunch bag and Gavin screeched because he didn’t like wet bread, or the time that Dan hid Gavin’s mitt and pretended to help him search for it for ten minutes straight. It didn’t faze the boy, and to be honest, Michael thought it made Gavin’s presence a lot more tolerable.

By the end of the week, Michael was praying that he’d be on a good team, one that  _didn’t_  have Gavin on it, because he was good at baseball, like really good, and he wanted to win for once, especially since his mom would be there.

Of course, that didn’t work; not only did he end up on Gavin’s team for their last day of camp, but Ray and Caleb, two of the best players there, were on the other team.

Michael was fidgety all day, despite the constant heat. Gavin certainly didn’t help, popping up out of nowhere every few minutes and squeaking, “Hi Michael!” mispronouncing his name every single time. By the time they were getting warmed up for the game, Michael was ready to snap.

And he did when Gavin popped up behind him again.

“God, Gavin, just leave me alone! You’re so annoying, I don’t even know where this comes from for you but just stop it!” he yelled, whirling around.

Gavin just cocked his head to the side. “But it’s fun, Michael. I like hanging around you.”

“Then why don’t you  _help me_  and learn to play the game right for once instead of messing up all the time!” With that, Michael stormed into the makeshift dugout.

This game seemed to be going the same way as any other the past week; even though Michael was powering through, Gavin wasn’t any help, and they fell behind quickly.

By the time they got to the fifth inning, Michael had written the game off as a lost cause and given up on winning. The score was 7 to 2, and it wasn’t looking like there was any way to come back from it.

Gavin sat down beside him and asked, “What’s wrong, Michael?”

“We’re gonna lose, man. Look at the score.” He sighed. “I just really wanted to win one, you know?”

“You really want to?”

Michael shot Gavin a look. “Yeah, I do. Why, what are you going to do about it? You gonna stop being awful?”

Gavin shrugged, standing to take his turn at bat. “Okay, then.”

When he reached the plate, Gavin pointed his bat at the dugout, gripped it properly, and actually seemed to concentrate. Michael couldn’t believe his eyes as Gavin hit the ball into the back bleachers, and jumped up to cheer with the rest of the team.

For the rest of the game, Gavin and his newfound talent helped Michael pull the team from behind, high fiving and unable to stop smiling. By the time the game was over and they were celebrating their win, Michael asked Gavin, “Why didn’t you play like that before? We’ve been here all week and you’ve been awful.”

“It’s kind of boring if everything goes right, isn’t it?” Gavin replied cheekily.

Michael shook his head. “You’re weird.”

“But that’s more fun, isn’t it?”


End file.
